In 1878, there were 5,300 Armenians in the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia, and this number increased by almost 20,000 after the Hamidian massacres. At the time of the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) the Armenians in Bulgaria numbered about 35,000. During this time the legendary Armenian national hero, Andranik Ozanian participated in the Balkan Wars in the Bulgarian army, alongside general Garegin Nzhdeh (another national hero) as a commander of Armenian auxiliary troops. Bulgarian authorities honored Andranik and Nzhdeh with the Order of Bravery. Despite Bulgaria allied with the Ottomans at the World War I, Bulgaria had criticized the Ottomans for the Armenian genocide. After the events surrounding the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire (1915–1917) 22,000 additional Armenians sought refuge in Bulgaria during the government of Aleksandar Stamboliyski in 1922. According to the archives, it was difficult for Armenians to obtain Bulgarian citizenship. For many years they lived with Nansen passports. However, these passports didn't give them full civil rights. This practice ended only in 1937–1942 for the Armenian men, and for the Armenian women – after 1944. However, some Armenians remained with Nansen passports, although they were a minority. During the Communist rule of Bulgaria (1944–1989) and the time of the Soviet Union, most of the Armenians returned to their homeland, then the Armenian SSR, but many chose to stay in Bulgaria or emigrate to other countries such as the United States. In the 1960s, several thousand Bulgarian Armenians succeeded to emigrate from the People's Republic of Bulgaria, despite the communist regime's severe restrictions on any travel outside the country. This emigrant wave remains little known, as the regime censored this successful emigration beyond the Iron Curtain. The emigration between 1962 and 1969 was an anomaly against the background of the realities in Communist Bulgaria. The emigration included various phases, with the authorities allowing it at times, albeit reluctantly. The emigration was banned twice, and the departures were finally stopped in 1969, both because of the threat of mass exodus of most Armenians from Bulgaria, and because of the risk of a negative propaganda effect in the country and abroad. In the 1990s, after the dissolution of the USSR, the poor economic conditions in Armenia and the military conflicts in the Caucasus caused a number of Armenians to seek a better future in Bulgaria as emigrants or travel through Bulgaria to western Europe or the United States. Since